


Two Or More Gathered

by avislightwing



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: (but just very brief mentions), Alternate Universe - College/University, Anime, Family Feels, Finals Week Suffering, Fluff, Gen, Mental Health Issues, Tea, will I ever write a modern AU that doesn't reference naruto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 13:53:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18572830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avislightwing/pseuds/avislightwing
Summary: It's two AM during finals week, and Fjord, the floor's RA, shows up with tea and anime.





	Two Or More Gathered

**Author's Note:**

  * For [losebetter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/losebetter/gifts).



> Based on losebetter's good good art found here: https://losebetter.tumblr.com/post/183468062821/fjord-as-the-big-friendly-older-gay-kid-who
> 
> Important things about this AU:  
> \- Jester, Beau, Caduceus, and Nott are all freshmen  
> \- Caleb’s the one upperclassman who stayed in the residence halls because he got a scholarship that covers room and board  
> \- Fjord is their RA who’s very bad at being an RA (he tries…) and has had to write Jester up for noise violations about five times. Jester always apologizes and promptly forgets about the quiet hours rules again  
> \- Beau and Jester have been dating since week two of the first semester, when Jester decided that she did not, in fact, have a crush on the cute RA and instead had a crush on her roommate  
> \- Caleb does, in fact, have a crush on the cute RA  
> \- Said cute RA also has a crush on Caleb but is determined to not let him know about it because that’s Not Allowed, RAs dating residents, so they’re just pining until Caleb at LEAST moves out of Fjord’s floor  
> \- Nott’s Caleb’s roommate and reminds him that he gets free meals on campus so there’s absolutely no reason to not eat  
> \- Caduceus has the single at the end. Well, it’s not actually a single, but his roommate Yasha is never around, so he’s mostly just filled her side of the room with potted plants

Beau had her calculus notes spread out over an entire table and was doing chin-ups on the balcony of the residence hall lounge when Fjord walked in and set his laptop down on her scribbled algorithms. It was two in the morning the Friday before finals, and everyone was barely holding it together. Caleb was hunched over a linguistics textbook in one corner of the room, Jester was fast asleep and clutching her Ikea shark in another, and various freshmen had been stumbling in and out all night, telling each other that really, it was one semester, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if they failed a _few_   tests.

“What’re you doing up?” Beau said, pulling herself back onto the balcony and into the room, closing the door behind her after seeing Jester shiver from the cool May breeze. “You on duty?”

“Nah,” Fjord said, pulling down the screen over one wall and blowing dust off the old-fashioned projector that always seemed to end up back in this room. “Just figured everyone needed a break from studying, including me.” He opened his laptop up and plugged it into the projector.

“I dunno about everyone else, but yeah, I sure do,” Beau said, flinging herself into the nearest armchair that wasn’t occupied. “Jes passed out about an hour ago in the middle of quizzing Nott on chemistry terms, so Nott ran out to get her some hot chocolate. She should be back soon.”

Fjord snapped his fingers. “That’s what I forgot. Okay, just a mo’.” As the projector hummed to complaining life, he opened Crunchyroll and pulled up an episode of Dragon Ball Z.

“Can you do Naruto instead?” Beau put in.

Fjord grinned at her. “Not this time. It’s a DBZ kind of night. Be right back. Tell Caleb that he should get his head out of his book for a few minutes.”

Beau sighed audibly and rolled her eyes, but once Fjord left the room, she started nudging Caleb. “Dude. Hey, dude. Time to take a break.”

Caleb looked up, his eyes taking a few seconds to focus. “Beauregard?”

“Fjord’s throwing an anime party in the middle of the night like the madman he is,” Beau said. “He told me to get you in on it.”

Caleb blinked up at the projector. “I suppose I have a few minutes,” he said, closing his textbook. “Do you know where Nott went?”

“She was going to make a convenience store run, I think,” Beau said.

“Did you tell her to get me more peach rings?” Caleb said hopefully.

“Dude, you’re going to turn orange if you eat any more of those things,” Beau said. “This is health advice from me, who once didn’t eat a vegetable for a week straight, so you should listen.”

“Beau?” Jester said sleepily, hugging her shark tighter. “Wha’s goin’ on?”

“Nothing, Jes, Fjord’s just being the kind and caring soul he is,” Beau said promptly.

Her girlfriend sat up and rubbed her eyes. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” she said. “I was helping Nott.”

“Nott went out on a supply run, don’t worry about it,” Beau said. “We’re taking a break, anyway.”

“A cookie break?” Jester said.

“Depends on what Nott gets,” Beau replied.

Jester made her grumpy face – the one that scrunched her nose up and made her look like she had twice as many freckles as she usually did – and gestured Beau to come over. Beau obligingly went and gave her a big hug, at which point Jester shoved her off again. “You’re stinky,” she complained.

“You just think everyone should smell like a candy store all the time,” Beau countered.

“A’ight,” Fjord said as he walked back in, juggling the residence hall kitchen’s electric kettle and entire tea supply, as well as an assortment of mugs that looked like he must’ve raided five different thrift stores to get. “No coffee, Cay. No caffeine for any of you, and I swear, if Nott comes back with any of that shitty 4-hour energy stuff, I’ll –” He stopped as everyone stared at him. “Yeah, she’s right behind me, isn’t she.”

“Yes, she is, and she’d appreciate it if you’d give her a little credit,” Nott’s voice creaked from behind him. She was holding two plastic grocery bags. “I didn’t get Caleb any more coffee, instant or otherwise, _and_   I didn’t get him any energy drinks. There’s studies that those give you heart attacks and Caleb’s heart needs all the help it can get.”

“Oh! Donuts!” Jester squealed as Nott started unloading her bags, including two boxes of powdered donuts. “Nott, you are the beeest, I love you so much, I promise next time you get a cold I won’t be annoyed when you take all my Emergen-C.”

By now, the projector had powered up and started sending a weak signal to the screen on the wall. “Really? Not Naruto?” Nott complained, climbing over the various chairs cluttering the lobby and plopping herself into Caleb’s lap, all pointy limbs and large eyes.

“Why does everyone always want to watch Naruto?” Fjord said, exasperated. “Cay, you want some chamomile?”

“Ja, please,” Caleb says.

Fjord nods and turns the kettle on. “Anyone else?”

“I don’t need tea,” Nott says, ripping open a package of Chips Ahoy. “I have –”

“Nope, nope, RA in the room,” Fjord interrupts. “Whatever you were about to say, I’m probably not allowed to hear it. Jes?”

“Nott brought me hot chocolate,” Jester said, already dumping three hot chocolate packets into one of the mugs. “Deucey would probably like some tea but I think he’s in his room, d’you want me to go see?”

“Nah, don’t want to wake him up, it’s late,” Fjord said.

Beau plopped a teabag of green jasmine in her mug. “Not a word,” she added, jabbing a finger in Fjord’s direction. “Dairon said it’s good for me.”

“Also, you like the taste,” Fjord added.

“Also, I like the taste,” Beau muttered. “But you’re not allowed to tell anyone. I have a reputation to maintain.”

“My lips are sealed,” Fjord assured her. “Everyone settled in and comfy?” He looked around the room, where his residents ten minutes ago had been buzzing with nervous energy, even asleep or absent. Now, they were all piled onto the old furniture of the room like they belonged there, clutching mugs and questionable snacks and sleepy eyes fixed on the dim projector screen. Caleb looked up at him and smiled, patting the chair next to him.

Fjord laughed a little and took the offered seat. “You have been working as hard as anyone,” Caleb said, peering at him over the reading glasses still perched on his face. “You can’t care for everyone else if you’re not caring for yourself.”

“Spoken like someone who knows what he’s talking about,” Fjord said, and let himself relax, at least for the moment.

Tomorrow, there would be finals, and patrolling the halls making sure no one was having a breakdown, and Jester would struggle through her history final, and Beau would frantically put the finishing touches on her sports health paper, and Caleb would ace his linguistics test and then go have a panic attack in the bathroom, but now, everyone was safe, and happy, hearts full of anime and bellies full of tea and processed sugar.

Just the way Fjord liked it.


End file.
